The Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce held its Distinguished Speakers Breakfast this morning. Presenter was Steve Vinter, Director at Google.

Mr. Vinter is a relaxed presenter with a sense of humor. He kept the crowd’s attention using his humor and switching topics fairly frequently. He spoke about AdWords, Analytics, Google+, Speed, Ripples, Android, the Google Body Project, Non-Profits, Page Speed, Sharing, and more.

He demonstrated

• How he used a form in a Google Docs spreadsheet to get votes from a group of employees about where to have a celebration.
• How to find ‘gas stations’ within X miles radius of a location on Google Maps.
• How website developers like myself can improve page delivery speed using Google’s Page Speed tool to measure speed and suggest improvements

I learned new things about Google and some of its products.

The highlight for me was when Mr. Vinter demonstrated the use of Page Speed. He first tested CNN.com and the tool gave that website a rating of 81%. Then he tested the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce’s website and that received a rating of 89%. Higher than CNN – and by 8%! That made my day, since CNN has so many more employees… and here I am, plugging away, able to get one of my clients such a fabulous rating! Very gratifying and a good way to start the day!

There were “oohs” and “ahhs” in the audience. Many people know that I maintain the Chamber’s website. I, of course, was more than happy to stand and take a bow. It was a moment to remember.

I’m looking forward to an update on Google from Google Engineering Director Steve Vinter who will be speaking at the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Distinguished Speakers Breakfast meeting next week.

There have been lots of changes in the Google tools that I use, now, there are new tools and re-definitions. I hope to learn a couple of not-so-well-known nuggets that will give my clients a leg up on getting found on the Internet.

Been writing in your blog for a while and stuck for fresh ideas? A number of blog topics are commonly recommended and  they are listed below,  BUT, my number one recommendation is to look at the statistics (Awstats, Webalizer, etc. statistics programs loaded in your admin, and/or your Google Analytics) for your blog.

Why? Because you want to write about what people want to know...Checking your statistics lets you know the terms that the search engines associate with your blog (with you and your business).

When you look at the keyword terms section of your statistics, you see a list of a keywords terms and the number of times visitors where brought to your blog using each term. So any term appearing on that list is a term that the search engines associate with your blog.

My Process:

I review the list of keyword terms and the number of visits for each term. I’m looking at this information in order to exploit the already “good” associations the search engines are making.  (Some keyword terms are working fabulously, and I am happy with the traffic that the search engines bring for those terms.) For figuring out what to write about in my blog, I choose a keyword term that I think should/could be bringing in more traffic,  and I write about that keyword term.

Following this strategy, at a minimum, you reinforce that the search engines were correct in associating your blog with a keyword term in the first place, and, more likely, you are adding more evidence that you are INDEED and expert on that keyword term topic!

What do you think? Have you tried a similar strategy? If not, would this work for you? Let is know in the comments section.

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Common Topics

• How To…
• Five tips for…
• Changes in the Industry
• Training you are taking
• Upcoming Events
• Recent Awards
• Recent Articles or News Reports

CNET reports that Twitter has admitted to saving more than your tweets when you use their app on your smartphone. Twitter is uploading your contact data and browser history and saving it on their servers for 18 months.  For what reason???

A spokesperson for Twitter says that in the next release(s) of the phone app(s), they will be more explicit about what Twitter does and does not do.

Learn more from the CNET video (1:30):  Twitter wants your contacts, smartphone data

Today, a break from writing about WordPress and blogs to tell you about a great spam-filtering software tool that I (now) recommend. One of the tasks I had scheduled for Business Infrastructure Week  (the week between Christmas and New Years) was to evaluate MailWasher Pro.

How did MailWasher Pro get on my list?
I have over 20 email accounts, most of which get checked daily. You can imagine the amount of spam that comes in with the legitimate emails. I needed relief from wading through the spam to find the important emails from my clients…a business colleague suggested MailWasher Pro.

I researched MailWasher Pro, downloaded the evaluation copy, used it for a couple of days, liked it a lot, then purchased a copy and installed it on my desktop.

It is a great product and I highly recommend it. MailWasher Pro allows you to connect to the servers of all your email accounts and review and categorize the emails and the senders before emails are downloaded to your computer. You can mark things for delete or approve, and blacklist and whitelist senders. Each time you categorize and delete and approve messages, MailWasher learns and remembers,  so  everyday, you are presented with a list of emails that MailWasher Pro has pre-categorized – saving you time – and over time, you are just checking that MailWasher Pro has got it right.

I no longer download unwanted email to my desktop. It is reviewed, categorized, and filtered on the remote servers, then downloaded. MailWasher Pro is a great time saver and has improved my productivity.

(Karen Callahan and Adventures Online are NOT affiliated in any way with Firetrust nor MailWasher Pro… just a fan!)

Tonight, while working on my eBook about search engine optimization for WordPress bloggers, I was more-than-pleased to discover that Adventures Online still holds the first 3 listings in Google’s results pages for “blog developer massachusetts”. Ya Hoo!

Google SERPs for Blog Developer Massachusetts on 2011-12-22

Last time I checked was March 26, 2011 (results are on the Home Page). Here we are 9 months later. Adventures Online remains in the first three (organic) listings AND this time there are 800,000 more matches being returned.

How’d I do that? Persistence, consistency, faith in using my keyword terms…

Where does your website rank in Google for your keyword terms? How do you maintain your rank in Google? Share your tips in the comments…

This Thursday at my BNI meeting we collected presents for Toys for Tots. We’ve done this for a number of years, and it was very pleasing this year to see that despite the economy members were as generous as ever! Super folks at the Marlborough BNI!

Here’s pics of us cutting it up before the gifts were taken out for delivery.

Katherine Wright, Mike Curtin and Me posin'

Dennis Maroney, Beth Bryant, Suzanne Spero and me showing off the gifts.

Photos by Emily Greenwood, EKG Networking, Marlborough, MA.

]]> http://www.adventuresonline.com/1514/pausing-for-the-season/feed 0 http://www.adventuresonline.com/1503/test-your-seo-knowledge-answers http://www.adventuresonline.com/1503/test-your-seo-knowledge-answers#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:17:39 +0000 Karen Callahan http://www.adventuresonline.com/?p=1503

Last week, I posted questions for you to be able to test your SEO knowledge. Today, I post the answers.

It is impossible to do SEO without updating the pages at my website
TRUE - SEO is an intrusive process. Yes, some of the tasks like increasing your inbound links lie outside of the website, but equally-important tasks are re-working the words on your web pages and adding appropriate meta data to each web page.

It is good to have my web pages submitted to the search engines on a frequent basis.
FALSE  - This is strategy from a decade ago. Nowadays, you only want to submit the web pages that you have tweaked in order to improve their standing in the search engine results pages.

The geographical location of the server my website is on affects  the ranking of my website in the search engines
TRUE – Your hosting firm does not have to be in the next town, but, hosting your website in-country is most important. Remember that search engines are now producing “local” results. If your website is hosted with your friend in another-country, it is likely that your website will be listed as an option for your industry in that country and not the country in which you operate.

The directory structure of my website affects the ranking of my website in the search engines
TRUE – For best results use descriptive names for all directories and files, and limit the number of levels of directories.

I can help my SEO by setting up my blog at another website so that I can drive traffic to my website
FALSE – According to the experts from large search engine companies like Google that I have heard speak (and attended seminars and workshops, etc.), statistics show that although you can drive traffic to your website, you get a bigger bang for your efforts by blogging at your own website – and – you avoid putting yourself into competition against yourself.

I can significantly impact my SEO by using certain techniques each time I write in my blog
TRUE – The average WordPress blogger critically underestimates the value of their efforts using keyword phrases in their post and pages and manipulating the titles, descriptions, and keywords to the meta data of a post or page.

Flash adds no value to my SEO
TRUE - Flash cannot be read by the search engines and therefore, adds no value for SEO.

Choose the one best answer

When I guest blog or publish an article at someone else’s website, my SEO will be better if they provide a link to:

A.    My Home page
B.    My About Us page
C.    A topic-related page in my website

C is the best answer – Have other websites link as “deep” in your website as is practical. Next best answer is B, then A. You need to special request this because organizations are busy and don’t want to think and will automatically link to your Home page, which is not in your best interest.

When blogging, I’ll get the best SEO results by assigning………to a blog post.

A.    One category
B.    2 – 3 categories
C.    As many categories as are relevant

A is the best answer in order to gain the best SEO results. Search engines do not like duplicate data. When you create a post inside ONE category – there are really 3 versions of the post: the post, the post inside the category, and the post inside the (automatic) date archiving.  For each additional category you assign, another post is created (really believed to exist by the search engines). Too many copies of the same post and the search engines begin to think that you are trying to scam them… and then they start a whole new level of evaluation… You don’t want to go there

What has been your experience? What SEO tip would you add?

We’ve got that week coming up – the one between Christmas and New Year’s. Usually a slow week with regard to customer interaction, so, I plan business infrastructure projects for that week; upgrade software, research & test software; transfer one of  my websites, etc.

This year, I have that week planned six-ways-to-Sunday – and – it is going to be a challenge to prioritize tasks and determine which can be left for another day. My list of To Do’s includes:

• Transfer my website
• Upgrade the WordPress® core software and all the plugins on my blogs
• Research MailWasher and MailWasher Pro
• Finish my eBook – SEO for WordPress Power Bloggers
• Learn about Kindle Direct® publishing and determine if it is a fit
• Certification Course
  • Write the specs
  • Write the syllabus
  • Define the registration process
  • Finish the plan
• Upgrade security software on production and development systems
• Catch up/meet for lunch with business colleagues
• Review my websites for outdated info and archive outdated info (copyright dates, event listings, statements like “for 12 years…” and “a decade ago…”)
• Add the WordPress Editorial Calendar to “Karen’s Blog” and start planning out the content as I have been advocating

What’s on your list?

Today I gave a presentation in my BNI group.  Last week I had been given a list of questions prepared by the group so that I would know what the members wanted to talk about. There were several questions about SEO.

I answered the questions by giving the group a mock quiz.

Test yourself and I’ll post the answers next week.

True or False

T     F      – It is impossible to do SEO without updating the pages at my website

T     F     – It is good to have my web pages submitted to the search engines on a frequent basis

T     F     – The geographical location of the server my website is on affects  the ranking of my website in the search engines

T     F      – The directory structure of my website affects the ranking of my website in the search engines

T     F     -  I can help my SEO by setting up my blog at another website so that I can drive traffic to my website

T     F     -  I can significantly impact my SEO by using certain techniques each time I write in my blog

T     F     – Flash adds no value to my SEO

Choose the one best answer

When I guest blog or publish an article at someone else’s website, my SEO will be better if they provide a link to:

A.    My Home page
B.    My About Us page
C.    A topic-related page in my website

When blogging, I’ll get the best SEO results by assigning………to a blog post.

A.    One category
B.    2 – 3 categories
C.    As many categories as are relevant